Field of the Disclosure
The technology of the disclosure relates to providing high bandwidth connections to subscriber facilities.
Technical Background
The internet is evolving in response to perceived demands on it from both consumers and content providers. The consumers are perceived to desire the ability to download audio and video content without degradation of the content from compression or the like. This desire results in a perceived demand for greater bandwidth. Similarly, content providers have a desire to be able to charge for content delivered to a consumer when the consumer requests the content (i.e. “on demand” video). Such content delivery is bandwidth intensive. Thus, both sides of the consumer-provider relationship have a perceived desire for greater bandwidth.
The advent of streaming high definition video has only exacerbated this demand. Current twisted wire solutions are not capable of providing the bandwidth necessary to provide the desired content at the desired quality levels. While coaxial cable solutions initially offered the promise of being able to provide desired bandwidth, as more subscribers use the cable network, the available bandwidth has to be shared between these subscribers, resulting in unacceptable degradation of quality. Similarly, while satellite based systems have offered large downlink bandwidths, uplink bandwidths have proven relatively narrow or require a terrestrial based uplink. Additionally, satellite systems sometimes exhibit the more serious problem of long latency. Neither solution is attractive and relegates the satellite systems to a marginally acceptable solution.
Communication networks using optical fiber as the primary uplink and downlink media have proven capable of accommodating the heavy bandwidth requirements. However, fiber optical networks have not seen widespread deployment beyond central office to central office connection. Occasionally, the optical fiber network has been extended to a community head end or other remote location, but individual subscribers still rely on copper solutions to provide service from the head end or remote location to the subscriber unit. Expense and inconvenience of providing buried fiber optical cables from the head end or remote location to the subscriber unit have slowed further expansion of the fiber optical network. Thus, to date, fiber to the house (FTTH) has not been realized, and subscribers are still perceived to desire streamed high definition quality video.